Marina Monaco – Water for a While

A natural swimming pond in the middle of a Munich industrial estate, created for five years – a large body of water without chemicals, with a sandy beach and boats.

Location	Munich, Schwabing-Freimann
Size	around 560 m² of sealed pond surface, over 80 m of shoreline, max. 1.20 m deep
Design	Design and construction of the swimming pond: Fuchs baut Gärten, landscape architect Hans Rampf · Client: Immobiliengruppe Hammer AG, Munich · Architect named in the building application: Timo Oberbossel (Hammer AG) · Interior designer responsible for the design: Rebecca Pittlinger (Hammer AG) · Timber construction contractor: Max Rappenglitz GmbH · Operation and events: Sylvenstein Event GmbH · Planned in spring 2025, opened in May 2026
Implementation	Fuchs baut Gärten GmbH – Gärtner von Eden
Photography	Benjamin Klopp / frames for good
Award	In the book “Landschaftsarchitektur” 2027 (Callwey)

“Water creates a place – even where there was none. That this swimming pond exists only for a limited time is not a flaw but its essence: landscape as an offer, not a promise for eternity.”

— Hans Rampf, landscape architect at Fuchs baut Gärten

Since May 2026, a swimming pond with a sandy beach, boats and a fountain has been sitting in the middle of a Munich industrial estate. Where metal parts were recently made with heavy machinery, there are now sun loungers on the sand.

Nobody is meant to go in here – and that has nothing to do with water quality. The quality is excellent. The pond is deliberately shallow, at most 1.20 m; built any deeper, it would be a swimming pond like any other of ours. But a public bathing site needs lifeguard supervision – and that was not planned for this site. That is why the water is fenced off. What remains is water to look at, to cool the air and to sit beside with a drink in your hand.

If you really want to get in: swimming pond for your own garden, natural outdoor swimming pool for municipalities.

What makes it special is that it is time-limited. The temporary use is planned for five years, open from April to the end of October. After that, the urban district “Neue Schmiede” will be built on the site – and the future neighbourhood square is planned exactly where the pond is today. So the garden knows from the start that it will leave again.

Why a temporary space is still worth it

You could ask: why go to such effort for something that will disappear again? The answer is on the shore. In the first season, reeds, purple loosestrife and grasses have established themselves, insects have arrived, and biology is at work in the water. Five years is a stepping stone for a person – for a dragonfly it is many generations.

And for the people who work here, it is the only cool spot within walking distance. An industrial estate heats up; an open stretch of water with planting does the opposite. That is why temporary greenery is not a compromise but a tool – find out more under urban green spaces.

Temporary use is urban development

A site waiting to be redeveloped normally lies fallow: fence, gravel, five years of nothing. Here, instead, it is open to the public and ecologically active – the neighbourhood gets a place that did not exist before, and the future district is alive before the first new building goes up.

That is also why this project appears in the Callwey book “Landschaftsarchitektur” and not in “Gärten des Jahres”: this is not about a garden, but about open space in the city. For municipalities and project developers, that is the real insight – a temporary body of water can be planned and approved and, after five years, disappears without a trace. If you have something like this in mind: urban green spaces and let's talk about it.

How the water stays clean

Around 560 m² of sealed pond surface with over 80 metres of shoreline, a maximum of 1.20 m deep, cleaned without chemicals: nutrient removal is handled entirely by the aquatic plants – via a planted substrate filter built into the regeneration zone, through which a single economical 12-volt pump circulates the water. There is no more technology in the water than that: no skimmers, no pressure filters. The fountain adds extra oxygen. The difference from a private pond is the load – on a warm evening, many hundreds of guests sit on the shore here, and sand makes its way into the water. That is why the zone has to be sized more generously.

As a Biotop partner since 1993, we have built over 440 water features. This is the first one with a planned expiry date.

Background on the temporary use, the site of almost 60,000 m² and the 800 tonnes of sand: tz München, 22 May 2026. The site is run by Sylvenstein Event GmbH (marinamonaco.de) – opening hours and events are listed there.

Moving images

Three films, none of them ours

A yacht harbour in an industrial estate gets people talking. These three short films are not by us: one from ganz-muenchen.de, one from the radio station 95.5 Charivari and one from the client, Hammer AG. In the Charivari film you can see our team at work.